Informal Letter

Lot 47, Hse 54,
Taman Sinar Baru,
88450, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah.

8 August 2009


Dear Rita,

How are you? I’m fine and I hope that you are in the pink of health. As a reputable column advisor, I would like to address some of the problems that are faced by a modern teenager like me. I’m seventeen this year and I will be facing the SPM examinations end of this year. I hope that you will be able to give adequate and reasonable advice and tips on how to solve my problems.

As you know, I am facing SPM examination during the November and December months. This examination is critical to all form five students in order to pursue further studies abroad. It is like a passport to your future. The problem that I am facing is that I am not able to concentrate on my studies. My concentration tends to stray away and is distracted by minute complications like the arrangement of things on my desk and also I drift away in my mind. To achieve my ultimate goal of succeeding to be an engineer, I have to rely on the Hobson’s choice to fund my tertiary education, which is on scholarships. I know I am not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. To procure this, excellent results is needed. So dear Rita, I hope that you will be able to give me an elixir to my predicament.

Besides that, I am likewise to suffer from family pressure. My parents expect me to achieve creditable and admirable results in my SPM examinations. If I do not study hard enough, I will be penalize and they ground me. For example, if I fail any subjects that I am taking, my parents will cut me off from all source of entertainment and enlightenment like my music player, the computer and even the television. They will also nag at me constantly disregarding if I let my eyes off my book for a brief period. Furthermore, my parents also had fight with each other about financial woes. My father is just a humble office clerk while my mother is a housewife. In all, my father is the breadwinner for my family of six. As the eldest, I have the responsibility to tend to my younger siblings. As I care for them, I am fully aware that I am sacrificing time that I can use to do my revision. Almost everyday, I go to bed in the early hours of the morning. So please dear Rita, please provide me with some philosopher's stone to ease my burden.

Moreover, I am also faced with an uphill and a seemingly insurmountable challenge to balance my time between studying and co-curriculum. I am not able to focus during my revision because I am tired and lethargic after the activity. The consequence of this is that I am getting bad grads for my school based exam. I have less time to study because I have lack of time due to co-curricular activities. So in order for me to study, I have to burn candles at both ends in order to meet my target for my daily revision. I am the president of the school’s Football Club and also the president of the Boys Brigade of my school. These posts that I am holding demand my utmost attention and to deal with all the meetings is really a struggle and it seems endless. By the same token, I am facing relationship problem with friends. Friends, as we know, bring happiness and are able to relate to our problems. The unfortunate deadlock that I am in is that some of my friends fall out of favour with me. They seem to defame my credentials as a person who is arrogant. I am out of wits when I try to resolve this botheration. It proved futile. How am I supposed to do? Help me, dear Rita.

Lamentably, I have to stop penning at this very note. I look forward to your reply and will be all ears to your advices given to me. I genuinely hope that with your vast experience and knowledge in this field will you tackle this problem assiduously and I would like to thank you for your time in trying to reply me. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Victor Wong